Say It's Your Birthday

December 16, 2014 and another birthday is in the books. Forty-five sounds so much older than I feel.  I guess that's a good thing, though, right? I have a self-inflected wound on my nose this week from dancing in the car.  Does that make me young at heart, or a middle-aged woman who is losing her coordination and can't even car dance without hurting herself?

Eli and I spent the day at Cocoa & Crafting with some of our favorite moms and their kiddos, where  I received the cutest little cake. Love my moms group!

Later in the day Zeke fought me for my pressie, 

 

but I was able to wrestle it away.

This party girl spent the evening with the little people in my life who were most looking forward to celebrating my special day in Sundance Square.

Mainstay Farm

 'Mainstay Farm--the fun begins when you get here!'

haystacks to romp on

trampoline pillow

web net

web maze

seesaw

web maze

(Daisy is right behind the wooden face.  

So much for a family photo.)

big ole chair

zip lines

hay ride with a friend

trouble [cubed]

Reindeer Games Already

I hate to celebrate holidays out of order, but sometimes you gotta.  The best time for our small group to have our Christmas party was before Thanksgiving.

Even though it was early, we still enjoyed an evening of reindeer games.

Even reindeer have to eat.

What's a party without pizza?

The reindeer games started with building reindeer stables.

 Lijee made a marshmallow kabob instead of a stable, 

but to each his own.  

We wrote a 'Deer John' letter and then sang 

Harold The Smelly Cat (Mad Lib version of Rudolph). 

 I had planned to have a race collecting reindeer poop, but the rain prohibited it.

Melting the snowball was so much fun last year 

we did it again.

 We took a break from the games to remember the real meaning of Christmas by doing a readers theater of the Nativity scene.

We also enjoyed our 2nd annual shoe box stuffing.  Each kid fills a shoebox to mail for Operation Christmas Child.

Merry Christmas (a little lot early)!

*Let it be known The Hartungs were missed.

Trailblazin'

There are many things we love about our church. It's bible-based and adheres to scripture in teaching and policies.  It has a phenomenal children's program. It's a church without walls and we reach out within our community as well as around the world. The fact that I met my husband there is the cherry on the top.

But here's a bonus:  they really know how to throw a party!